After a set at Zorn brewing earlier in the day Saturday, Cognitive Blue came to Martini’s for an entertaining second set.
Cognitive Blue consists of Michael Schaffer-Murray, Nick Evans on Drums, Matt Kusbel on guitar, and Kyle Hoogeveen on bass. A few of these names may look familiar from Planetary Blues, but this is Michael’s main originals project and not a spin off of Planetary Blues.
Michael says of the formation of Cognitive Blue “It’s difficult to say about Cognitive. We formed late 2016 but didn’t become a 4 piece and start recording, practicing, and gigging regularly till late 2018/early 2019. I’ve been writing songs since 2009 but had no vehicle to get them out. Nick and I have been consistently working on them since 2014, but it wasn’t until the last few years since finding a bassist and guitarist that ball has really started rolling. It took a while, but the plus side is that after all these years, we have upwards of 60 originals ready to go for the band to learn. As things stand we are doing probably about 20 of them live.” Throughout the set, they do throw in some covers to keep the audience engaged, but the originals by themselves are entertaining and catchy including a spaghetti western called Slow Down that could easily be in a Quentin Tarantino movie.
Currently they have 8 singles on Spotify, Apple Music and most of the other major streaming sources with an album planned in the future.
To keep up on Cognitive Blue’s whereabouts, follow their Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/CognitiveBlue/.
NWI Jam 